spellings on EBAY

Started by Highland Handlebar, April 26, 2018, 09:09:10 PM

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woodbury22uk

At a nearby shopping centre is a stall where flowers are sold. Run by Doris, for the past decade it was called something like "Doriss Flower's". The signs on the stall were recently repainted with brand new lettering reading "Doriss flower's".

One of my favourites is the confusion between "led" and "lead" used as the past tense of the verb "to lead".
Mike

Membre AFAN 0196

woodbury22uk

Quote from: Newportnobby on April 27, 2018, 10:07:02 AM


"ad's"? No requirement for an apostrophe :no:

People seem to have a particular apostrophe confusion when using the plural form of three letter acronyms (TLAs). EMUs becomes EMU's for some reason.

Whilst on the TLA subject,  there was a recent exchange on one of the French modelling sites concerning a post by a train driver which was made up largely of TLAs. It was gibberish to me. I was not alone, and we all learned a lot when the OP was deciphered into regular French.
Mike

Membre AFAN 0196

Newportnobby

One of the best idiots on TV is Paul Martin off 'Flog It'.
I've heard him say 'dutifulness' (how about just duty, Paul?)
also
'Take this away as a momento' (not a memento, then, Paul?)

Going back to the apostrophe thingy I was taught it replaces 'it is' such as in Spring's here' or as in possession e.g. 'Spring's warm sun'
I could see no need for the apostrophe in 'ad's'. If anything it should have had a full stop after it as it was an abbreviation i.e. ads.

David Asquith

This is a grate fred.  I'm luving it!  I must admit many years ago, as a teenager, I wrote "First Site" on a folder instead of First Sight.  I think I've improved since then.  I of red avidly since I first learnt.  Even read the Sanilav bottle whilst I was bored and waiting for things to happen.  My most hated too, are of instead of have and the so to start a sentence.  Red lines and corrections welcome but no slipper or ruler.  I had the ruler across my hands a few times because they were dirty at the start of the technical drawing class.

Dave

Newportnobby

The problem with the 'of' versus 'have' thing is at some point folks started using a contraction of 'should have' or 'would have' and they became 'should've' and 'would've'. This is accepted now but when they are spoken they sound like 'should of' and 'would of' hence the usage.

Another of my pet hates is the use of 'that' when it's completely unnecessary. As an example, in the first sentence above I could have typed.....
"The problem with the 'of' versus 'have' thing is that at some point..................."
It would have been a pointless insertion of 'that' as the sentence carries the meaning perfectly well without it. For those who read a lot (and I certainly do) you may find you now notice all the 'thats' and realise the average paperback could have been (or could've been) several pages shorter! :)

njee20

Quote from: dannyboy on April 27, 2018, 10:54:13 AM
Quote from: Newportnobby on April 27, 2018, 10:07:02 AM

"ad's"? No requirement for an apostrophe :no:

I know we have had this discussion previously on the forum and I do not intend this comment to be a resurrection of the topic, but I was always told that when letters were missing from a word, an apostrophe was to be used.  As @trkilliman says - "things aren't what they used to be".  ;)

Technically true, but then would you write ad'? It's an oft used justification for photo's, as a contraction of photographs, but you'd not write photo' so there's no reason for the apostrophe in the plural. Only time you ever need apostrophes in plurals is lower case letters: "dot the i's and cross the t's" or acronyms featuring upper and lower case letters; "PhD's", but even that's a negotiable!

No apostrophe for a possessive it either, "it's" is a contraction of 'it is', so it's "the thread was losing its way" not "it's way".

railsquid

I may of [sic] mentioned this before, but I live in Japan and despite it having an insanely complex and arbitrary written language, I very rarely (well basically never) see obvious blooper's[sic] in public writing. You do see evidence that something has been corrected, for example earlier today I was standing at my local bus stop (hi @Bealman !) and noticed a single character on a sign there had had a sticker (in an identical font and colour) stuck over it, presumably as someone had noticed an error.

(Now, English signage in Japan is a totally different kettle of ghoti...)

njee20

Dunno what you're talking about...


railsquid

That's from China, but I gather it suffers from a similar English problem...

Anyway where did I leave my sanity?

Oh yes, right here:




fisherman

one of  my favourites  on  e  bay was

a 'fright' train.....

poss from a high class seller ?
<o({{{<<

keithfre

Quote from: njee20 on April 27, 2018, 12:12:17 PM
No apostrophe for a possessive it either, "it's" is a contraction of 'it is', so it's "the thread was losing its way" not "it's way".
You're right: no apostrophe is required for possessive pronouns. The confusion arises precisely because an apostrophe is used for nouns, e.g. 'the man's waistcoat'.

Bob G

Can we bring American words into this discussion.
My favourite was a TV presenter describing how a poor man was burgularised when he was out.

Oh dear....

njee20

Yes that is a particularly horrific mutiliation of the language!

Newportnobby

Whenever I hear anyone say "burgalry" on the telly I always find myself yelling at the TV screen "Spell that please!" Exactly the same with the (seemingly) large numbers of TV people who say "nucular" instead of "nuclear". Anne Robinson always used to say "cuttelry" (my spelling) rather than "cutlery" and I did hear one lady weather forecaster say "wintery showers" when we all know it's "wintry" ::)

Highland Handlebar

It looks as if I have unleashed a monster!!

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